Timeline Explorer · the Negus of Aksum · Stop 1 of 6
c. 580 CE approximate debated before the Hijra
The Christian king of Aksum who gave the first Muslim exiles refuge and heard Ja'far's recitation — remembered in the tradition as a just ruler who, in some reports, himself became a Muslim.
Ibn Sa'd, Kitab al-Tabaqat al-Kabir (Bewley translation, Ta-Ha)
Birth: the Negus of Aksum — c. 580 CE
The Christian king of Aksum who gave the first Muslim exiles refuge and heard Ja'far's recitation — remembered in the tradition as a just ruler who, in some reports, himself became a Muslim.
The first migration to Abyssinia — c. 615 CE
In Rajab of the fifth year of prophethood, twelve men and four women — led by Uthman ibn Affan with the Prophet's daughter Ruqayya — slipped away by night to the port of Shu'ayba and sailed in two merchant ships to the kingdom of the Negus, 'a just king under whom no one is wronged'; most returned in Shawwal on the false report that Quraysh had converted.
The Quraysh embassy to the Negus — c. 616 CE
Quraysh sent Amr ibn al-As and Abdullah ibn Abi Rabi'a with gifts to the Negus to demand the return of the Muslim emigrants; he heard Ja'far ibn Abi Talib recite the opening of Maryam, refused to surrender them and returned the gifts.
The second migration to Abyssinia — c. 616 CE
When torture intensified after the first migrants' brief return, eighty-three men — Ammar's inclusion doubtful — and eighteen or nineteen women migrated again to Abyssinia; Quraysh sent Amr ibn al-As and Abdullah ibn Abi Rabi'a to win them back, but the Negus heard Ja'far ibn Abi Talib's account and sura Maryam, refused to surrender them, and returned the envoys' gifts.
The Negus carries the emigrants to the Prophet in two ships — c. 628 CE · c. 7 AH
Ibn Ishaq says: those of the Prophet's Companions who remained in Abyssinia stayed until the Prophet sent Amr ibn Umayya al-Damri to the Negus, who carried them in two ships and brought them to him at Khaybar after al-Hudaybiyya. The total who arrived in the two ships was sixteen men, and with them were carried wives of Muslims who had died there.
Death: the Negus of Aksum — c. 630 CE · c. 9 AH†
The Christian king of Aksum who gave the first Muslim exiles refuge and heard Ja'far's recitation — remembered in the tradition as a just ruler who, in some reports, himself became a Muslim.
